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Category: Diplomacy

June 28, 2006

The End of the Rainbow

Really, this piece by Michael O’Hanlon and Mike Mochizuki is well reasoned and said. Even if I disagree with much of it, I think they have a good grasp of which threats we ought to be worrying about. The debate about whether regime change would work is competely speculative until we actually try it in earnest, of course. At this point, they had me: [T]he administration should build its North Korea policy around the notion that we need to present...

Categories Abductions/Appeasement/China/China & Korea/Counterfeiting/Diplomacy/NK Economics/U.S. & Korea
June 28, 2006

Tongsun Park’s Trial Begins

Park formerly served as a “Special Advisor” to Maurice Strong, a wealthy, uber-connected Canadian leftist who in turn was Kofi Annan’s Special Envoy to North Korea. Strong and Park have now both been implicated in the U.N. Oil-for-Food scandal. During his tenure, Strong was notable for a deathly silence on human rights. He resigned after the OFF allegations emerged. Today, Park is charged with being an unregistered Iraqi agent, in violation of the Foreign Agents’ Registration Act. Writing in the...

Categories "United" Nations/U.S. Law
June 28, 2006

Balbina Hwang Nominated to Key Post at State

Balbina Y. Hwang was nominated as a special assistant to Christopher Hill, Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs. …. On issues pertaining to North Korea, the analyst made clear that a hardline stance would continue to be be taken. She said diplomacy would stand at the forefront of dealings with the North, but the North Korean nuclear issue could only be resolved through pressure on Pyongyang. She said Washington’s open criticism of the North’s human rights...

Categories Diplomacy/U.S. & Korea/Washington Views
June 27, 2006

Report: N. Koreans Will Allow Lefkowitz into Kaesong

If true, interesting. He should be prepared for an ambush before dozens of cameras, since recent visits make it apparent that North Korean guides at Kaesong are pre-loaded with approved harangues. The disadvantage of those is that the haranguer can’t adapt flexibly to questions like, “have you ever wanted to wander the streets of Rome, eat a mango, hear reggae, drive, or vote against the President?” Still, Lefkowitz will be set up as the overdog, and should not underestimate the...

Categories Appeasement/Democracy/NK Economics/U.S. & Korea/Uncategorized
June 25, 2006

Simple, Neat, and Wrong: Lugar and Hagel Go Wobbly on North Korea

[With a tip of my hat to H.L. Mencken.] Now that Democrats are suggesting that we bomb Kim Jong Il’s ballistic showpiece on the launching pad, we only need one more really dumb idea to make the role reversal complete. “It would be advisable to bring about a much greater intensification of diplomacy, and this may involve direct talks between the United States and North Korea,” said [Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Richard] Lugar, R-Ind. . . . “We need...

Categories Appeasement/Diplomacy/NK Military/Uncategorized/WMD
June 23, 2006

Strange Doves (Or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying About This Missile and Worry About Proliferation Instead)

“Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake.” — Napoleon Bonaparte The day after Newt Gingrich called for destroying North Korea’s Taepodong II ICBM on the ground, former Clinton-era SecDef William Perry has made a similar call in a Washington Post op-ed. He is joined by Ashton Carter, who turns out to have been Perry’s assistant before he was Demi Moore’s. The latest to support this proposal is … Walter Mondale: “I think it would end the nuclear...

Categories Diplomacy/Geopolitics/NK Economics/NK Military/U.S. Military/WMD
June 21, 2006

The Forked Tongue of Lee Jong-Seok, Part 3

“At least since 2000 when we began providing assistance to the North, no one there has been starving to death. ““ UniFiction Minister Lee Jong-Seok, May 2, 2006 That was then. South Korea’s UniFiction Minister is now saying no more rice if the little man fires the big rocket. I strongly support feeding the people of North Korea — especially those to whom the government has denied food aid. They are also victims; they bear no responsibility for the actions...

Categories Appeasement/Famine & Food Aid/Human Rights/NK Economics/NK Military
June 19, 2006

The Congo Question, The Heart of Darkness, and Accountability

The enforcement of standards of civilized behavior is what distinguishes us from our enemies, and today, we must again make that distinction plain. The Army has charged two soldiers and an NCO with murder in Iraq, based on an alleged incident that took place just last month. A three-star general ordered the investigation after following up reports about it. We eagerly await a John Murtha coverup allegation. The case will now proceed to an Article 32 investigation, a cross between...

Categories "United" Nations/Terrorism/Iraq/U.S. Law/U.S. Military/Uncategorized
June 17, 2006

The I.G. Farben Award

… is a prize for dumbfounding political ineptness guaranteed to drive away any sensible investor. The inaugural award goes to South Korean Prime Minister Han Myung-Sook, who has done her prospective partners no favors by publicly suggesting a match between German corporate management and forced labor from North Korea … you know, the country with the concentration camps, the racial purity complex, and the gas chambers. Here’s my prediction: German companies, with their sensitivity to their own history of using...

Categories Appeasement/Europe/Human Rights/NK Economics
June 17, 2006

Why He Took Those Pictures

The U.S. Ambassador to South Korea, Alexander Vershbow, has paid a very public visit to the Kaesong Industrial Park, and the initial signs are good. Vershbow, a man who seeks the public debate his predecessors so often avoided, has not shied from stating some rather blunt views about North Korea. Thus, the fact that the North Koreans allowed his visit to go forward at all is surprising. Best of all, Vershbow snooped around, took pictures, and even seems to have...

Categories Appeasement/Diplomacy/Human Rights/NK Economics/Technology/U.S. & Korea/U.S. Law/Uncategorized/WMD
June 12, 2006

An Endorsement, of Sorts

As used in this chapter – (1) the term “international terrorism” means activities that … (B) appear to be intended … (i) to intimidate or coerce a civilian population; [or] (ii) to influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion …. – Title 18, Section 2331, United States Code If North Korea’s latest were less laughable than a “threat” to cut off what must amount to billions in free money from South Korea, it might serve as one...

Categories Appeasement/Diplomacy/Korean Politics
June 10, 2006

Refugees Update

Twelve more North Korean refugees have been arrested in Thailand. Could this be a coincidence? Meanwhile, my contacts are giving me mixed reports on the status of the refugees held in a jail in Luang Prabang, Laos. Some say that media attention is helping the prognosis for release, another says that deportation back to North Korea may be imminent because the attention thus far has been limited. Please, take just a few seconds to contact the Lao Embassy to demand...

Categories "United" Nations/Appeasement/Human Rights/Refugees
June 10, 2006

Minister Lee, Call Your Lawyer!

I wonder if the UniFiction Ministry’s Kaesong brain trust — perhaps the same great minds that thought they could fill Wal-Mart shelves with Kaesong products — ever stumbled across these articles of the Republic of Korea Constitution: Article 32 (1) All citizens shall have the right to work. The State shall endeavor to promote the employment of workers and to guarantee optimum wages through social and economic means and shall enforce a minimum wage system under the conditions as prescribed...

Categories Appeasement/Human Rights/Human Trafficking/Korean Law/NK Economics/U.S. & Korea
June 8, 2006

More on the N. Korean Refugees Being Held in Laos

[Update: Human Rights Without Frontiers has launched an urgent appeal, which I reprint in full below, with Lao Embassy contacts in several nations. I called the Embassy today and thanks all who do so in advance.] Tim Peters has sent an update on the story The Korea Liberator broke here yesterday about the North Korean refugees jailed in Laos. You will recall that eight refugees and two South Korean activists were intercepted by the Lao police, who arrested and later...

Categories Appeasement/Refugees/Southeast Asia
June 2, 2006

Jay Lefkowitz to Visit Kaesong?

He must be thanking his Creator that he’s not in Chung Dong-Young’s league now. South Korea has invited the man Comrade Chung snubbed last year to Kaesong, and Yonhap reports Lefkowitz, who has publicly raised some pointed questions about the use of slave labor at Kaesong, has accepted. The latest report follows this one, confirmed by the USG, that a senior State Department official will also visit. Just one small problem here: the North Koreans haven’t granted him a visa,...

Categories Appeasement/Human Rights/NK Economics/U.S. & Korea
June 1, 2006

Exit Comrade Chung; Some Predictions

Adios, MF. Don’t let the Portal to Oblivion hit your ass on your way in. Never in Korea’s short history of electing local officials […] has a party which holds the Blue House performed so badly. My main hope for yesterday’s election was not for a GNP victory, but for an Uri defeat. The result, which officially qualifies as a “meltdown” on the Yangban’s scorecard, has already produced a windfall that far exceeds my limited expectations: the ignominious resignation and...

Categories Appeasement/Korean Politics/U.S. & Korea